


This Won't Hurt a Bit

by Erisabesu (ErisabesuFic)



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 20:35:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21594961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErisabesuFic/pseuds/Erisabesu
Summary: “Kusakabe Tetsuya is mistrustful of all beautiful things…”  [2010.03.05]
Relationships: Dino & Hibari Kyouya, Dino & Kusakabe Tetsuya, Hibari Kyouya & Kusakabe Tetsuya
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	This Won't Hurt a Bit

**“This Won’t Hurt A Bit”**

◊

Kusakabe Tetsuya is mistrustful of all beautiful things, which includes this vista of springtime Italian countryside undulating in soft ripples all the way to the horizon behind the Cavallone estate.

It’s some of the most beautiful land he’s ever seen, he must confess, sitting bent-legged in the lush grass and gnawing on stem after fresh stem to keep his anxiety under control. The Head Prefect probably shares his sentiments about the beauty of this place now that so much around them has been splattered with blood, some of it the Head’s and more of it Dino Cavallone’s. Off in the distance Kusakabe can make out the angular shadow of Romario leaning against a crooked and stubby tree. But the Head Prefect and the Boss of the Cavallone Family are hardly aware of anything outside of their fight, a fact made obvious by their twin grins of pleasure-veiled bloodlust as they engage in this morbid dance.

Dino proves Kusakabe wrong, however, when he calls for a break and promptly collapses onto his back in the grass right next to him, like a seed carried on the wind. Dino’s golden hair catches the sun, a grin playing on his lips as his chest rises and falls at a rapid rate from such exertions. While he rests, Dino’s eyes fix on the sky and it’s rolling, curling clouds swimming across the vast, dusky blue. The blood dappled across his cheek might even enhance his presence. And then Kusakabe notices that Dino has tilted his head to look up at him, thoughtful.

In a surprisingly liquid movement for someone half-beaten to death by Hibari Kyoya, Dino Cavallone twists to the side and plucks a yellow flower from the ground.

“Try this, Tetsuya,” Dino proffers it and winks. “Dandelions taste the best this time of year.”

Kusakabe’s eyes narrow as he accepts the gift, though he hesitates to take that next step and put it between his lips. Dino’s expression is amused and indulgent, like he can read Kusakabe’s mind and isn’t fazed in the least for being thought of as _a damned persistent weed._

But Kusakabe must act as expected of the Head’s right hand, no matter his personal feelings. He reluctantly removes the grass from his mouth and replaces it with the dandelion, pressing the stem to the back of his teeth and tasting a sweetness that matches the playful decadence of Dino’s manner, and the inherent beauty of his every word and gesture.

“Thank you,” Kusakabe replies, although he wants to grimace at the flower’s nectar seeping over his tongue. He has no stomach for this. He’s too accustomed to bitterness.

Dino’s reply is a sly smile, and then a hand gently squeezing Kusakabe’s shoulder as he stands and prepares to resume the match. Kusakabe watches, hoping against hope that a weed’s surprising succulence will not succeed in tempting the Head Prefect any more than this short stay on Italian soil already has… while memories of dandelions taking over every inch of his neighbor’s backyard—swallowing up every last blade of grass—couple his anxiety with a profound helplessness.

From that point on, whenever Kusakabe lays eyes on Dino Cavallone he will also taste the distinctive sweetness held within a dandelion’s stem, a taste that becomes incrementally bitter as Dino encroaches further and further inside the Head Prefect’s territory. Kusakabe can only wait for the right moment to choke such a persistent weed for good before it can surround and suffocate the Head Prefect, knowing all the while that such resistance is futile—for he too has been infected by Dino’s charms, swept away by the beauty of a smile and a gift given in a grassy Italian field, doomed again to long for that which he will never attain.

—

Ω


End file.
